Chance
by hanjizoesgoggles
Summary: Based off this tumblr post; .vu/post/67734298819/forget-coffee-shop-aus-there-need-to-be-more


Roderich kicked his car wheel, which was a very unsophisticated thing to do, although in the current circumstances he believed he could be excused just this once.

Eliza said her skills were more than adequate, and now he was stuck here in the rain with a broken down car and stinging foot.

That was what he got for believing his friend instead of paying for a professional.

At least the drive he was taking was back home, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten that marvellous position as a joint act for a French pianist next month.

However, he thought bitterly as he wiped the droplets off his watch (a rolex, obviously) it was 2am, and he most likely wasn't going to make it back to the university in time for Eliza to congratulate him with pancakes and some hideous traditional Hungarian smush she called Gulasch.

Roderich started looking at his surroundings. Just his luck, the place he had broken down in was completely deserted.

Come on, there has to be something, somewhere.

At last, he could just make out some lights beyond the rain. It was close enough to distinguish as a building, but far away enough to make Roderich scowl and take another step closer towards throwing a rich kid tantrum.

University life had made him far more tolerant of ridiculous unfairness though, so he started walking.

"Welc- hey, buddy, you're soaking wet!"

"Y-yes, that's quite-" Roderich paused to sneeze. "-Apparent."

"Hey, sit down and I'll bring you a towel, okay?"

"Thank you, you are very kind." He shivered and sat down at the one of the seats at the counter, taking in his surroundings.

He had discovered a diner of some sort, the stereotypical sort of one you would find in the middle of nowhere. Small, quiet, low level lighting and a TV in the corner playing a documentary about Earth. There was nobody else inside besides a man two seats over wearing a hooded jumper, completely covering his face. He looked shady, so Roderich didn't bother about him.

"Here you go, mate, anything you'd like to drink?"

Roderich gratefully took the towel from the barkeeper and started dabbing at his face. "Do you have any lemonade?"

"Yeah sure, everything's in the back though, so just wait a bit." As the man left, Roderich went on with drying his hair and what little he could strain out of his clothes, when he heard a different voice.

"Well you sure are a good looking one, ain't ya?"

Roderich, startled, quickly turned his head towards the other customer, who was now facing him, showing that he had abnormally white hair and eyes that looked red in the light.

"E -excuse me?"

"You're the prettiest face I've seen all month. Maybe ever." He was smirking, as he spoke with an accent that was obviously German.

Roderich coughed tensely. "W-well, I- thank y-"

"I sure wouldn't mind seeing it gasp beneath me."

The blood rushed to Roderich's face and he looked down at the bar. He was saved from responding to the lewd man by the keeper who had come just in time with a glass of the fizzing drink.

"Here you go. It'll keep you awake, so drink up."

Roderich nodded thankfully and took a sip.

"Another beer, will you, Ronnie?" the German next to him grinned, and raised his cup at the keeper, who sighed.

"You're exhausting my supply, Gil. New stock won't come in until next Tuesday."

"This'll be the last one, okay? I'll go away soon, I've got some more things on my mind." The last sentence came with an extremely suggestive wink aimed at Roderich, who promptly turned his face away to drink some more.

"Fine. But there's going to be a limit next time."

"You say that every time I come here!"

"That's because you're German!"

"Prussian!"

"Same thing!"

'Gil' scowled at the mans retreating back, but quickly reverted to his annoying smile.

"The names Gilbert."

Roderich didn't turn back towards him. "And why would I need to know that?"

The man's intentions were quite clear, and Roderich wanted to avoid them as much as possible.

"Something for you to moan out at night, I bet."

Roderich was close to choking on his drink, but he had to remain dignified, so he simply placed it down and stared absently at the glasses shelf.

"You're not going to tell me yours?"

"No."

Gilbert sighed. "Alright, Princess. What brings you here? You don't seem to be the 'ending-up-at-Denny's type."

"This isn't a Denny's."

"Wouldn't expect you to know the difference. Anyway, you're missing out on your caviar, cravat boy, what are you doing in this place?"

"You do not eat caviar at 2 o'clock in the morning."

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

Roderich fluttered his eyes closed in annoyance. He obviously wasn't going to leave him alone until he got an answer, so the Austrian decided to get this whole thing out of his way before mechanical shops opened.

"My car broke down."

"Oh?" Unfortunately, this seemed to spike Gilbert's interest. "I'm not too bad at engines, you know, I could help."

"That was exactly what got me here in the first place."

"What, a good looking Prussian man offered to fix your car?"

"A Hungarian woman." Maybe if he left correcting the 'good-looking' part out, he could pretend Eliza was his girlfriend.

Gilbert sniggered and Roderich glared. "Well that explains it, doesn't it? Okay, not that it was a woman, because they are amazing at handwork, if you know what I mean." Another wink and another glare. Maybe, Gilbert would realise that he probably shouldn't say those things while trying to pick up a guy, especially if he's already not making progress.

"Anyway, I knew a Hungarian girl once, and however good she was with a sword she couldn't do shit with pistons. She said she learnt from her friends and her mum, so I can kind of assume that that place is basically a car dump."

Roderich sniffed. "It could have been just that she did not learn from professionals."

"Her mother was a professional."

Roderich picked up his drink again. It was half finished, but despite what the keeper had said, he was still becoming sleepy. Speaking of which...

"Where's the keeper of this place? He was getting you a beer, wasn't he?"

"He knows when to leave me alone with one of my catches."

"I'm not-"

Gilbert stood up and held his hand out to the Austrian. "Do you want to get back home or what?"

"I can wait until the morning."

"It is morning. Anyway, I'm the closest mechanic you've got so we better get our asses out there before anyone expecting you starts calls the police."

Roderich was running out of things to say to shake the 'Prussian' off, and Gilbert was right. Eliza was very overprotective, and he if he wasn't back at campus by the time she woke up, there was going to be a lot of police to make tea for.

"You are not a professional."

"I will be if you pay me."

"I don't have enough money on me."

"Didn't say it had to be cash."

"How else would I pay you?"

"I can think of a few things," Gilbert winked again and Roderich felt his heart jump.

"I'm not-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm too poor for your tastes, but we'll get there. Anyway, I'm also talking about the fact that I hitched a ride here, so I'll need another one back to my campus."

"You're a student? Which university do you go to?" Gilbert was young, but looked too old for someone still studying.

"Cromartie."

That explained it. Cromartie was about three miles away from the top-class one Roderich attended, it had the lowest reputation in the state and nobody knew why it was a university instead of some community college in Texas, or even why it was still standing. Gilbert's tough body was probably gained from fighting the other pupils in the gym.

"Now I definitely don't want to go with you."

"Hey! You think way too lowly of us. I'm not sure how all you people got this whole rough-down-and-dirty view of the place, it's just cheap and a lot of the people who attend it just happen to be really ripped."

"We heard that somebody killed another person last year."

"What? No, the worst that happened was somebody who broke their leg falling of the stage in theatricals class. You rich kids get the weirdest fuckin' ideas, I swear." Gilbert shook his head. Despite impressions, it didn't seem like he was a liar, so Roderich finally gave in and stood up as well, which earned a grin from the other man.

"Awesome! You lead the way!"

When they stepped outside, Roderich automatically wrapped his arms around himself.

"Hey, are you cold?"

"No," he instantly snapped back and put his arms back down by his sides. It was a bad idea, because now he was visibly shivering earning a snicker from Gilbert.

"Here." He pulled off the jumper and wrapped it around Roderich's shoulders, like they did in the old movies. Roderich almost laughed at how cliche it was.

"You're really desperate, aren't you?"

Gilbert looked offended. "Hey! I could dump your sorry ass right here and wait for the next extremely good-looking guy to come."

"You said I was possibly the prettiest person you have seen in your life."

"That's why I'm not giving up so easily."

It was lucky they were outside at 3am, otherwise Gilbert would have rejoiced at how red the other's face was through the whole conversation.

"Let's just go."

Gilbert was leaning over the engine like he was in a higschool drama movie and Roderich was the main whiny blonde character expected to make out with him as an 'unexpected twist ending'.

Which wasn't going to happen.

They had found some tools that Eliza had left in the backseat of the Lexus before Roderich had to hurry to the audition, so it was making Gilberts job a lot easier. He was slamming the lid down within ten minutes.

"It should work like you just pulled it out of your private car dealers ass so get in."

Roderich scowled at the vulgar language and started opening the drivers door before Gilbert stopped him.

"Other side."

"What? This is my car, I'm driving!"

Gilbert shook his head. "No way, under your eyes is darker than your hair, you need to catch some rest. I'm also not letting you drive off without me."

Roderich glared at the albino. "You've been drinking! A tired person is far better than a drunk!"

"You don't have to worry about that! I'm Prussian!"

He growled, fruitlessly tugged at Gilbert's hand on the handle before giving up and moving to the other side. They both climbed in and Gilbert started the car.

This was definately better than Eliza's work, Roderich regretfully admitted. The annoying rattle was gone, and the sound of the engine was non-existent.

"Good work, isn't it?" Gilbert grinned and looked over at his passenger, who snarled and looked out the window as the scenery started moving.

They stayed in silence the entire trip, besides when Gilbert said "So, I still don't know your name, you know." But when he looked over at the brunete, he was already asleep.

Roderich woke up with a start, and immediately brought his hands to his eyes to escape the bright sun shining through the windshield.

As he slowly became more accustomed to it, a piece of paper in his hand was brought to his attention. There was red writing on it, but his glasses were not on his face. After a few minutes of blurry searching, he found them and donned them, blinking so he could get used to them again.

You can bet all the money in the IBCB that I'll meet you again, Roddy ;D

Underneath the worst pick up line ever was a set of numbers. Roderich groaned and put his forehead on the dashboard. The bastard had given him his number, and he was actually considering putting it to use. He looked at the note again and noticed something else on the other side.

Since I'm not a car thief or a beautynapper, I took some money for the bus. I can pay it back if you're really stingy about lowblood hands touching your very soul and being. (-)

Roderich unwillingly smiled at the ridiculous emoticon. Maybe, there was just a small chance this guy wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
